Exceeding Expectations
by Evilgoodguy
Summary: Joseph Kent was inducted into the Assassin Brotherhood, but his brother Daniel fears for his safety. As the day of Joseph's first mission approaches, Daniel is becoming increasingly irritable. Somehow, Joseph needs to gain his brother's trust or risk the entire operation. Side story to Assassin's Creed: Rising Sun.


Second ever author's notes!

Maybe I should get more practice on these. Or not. As you may or may not know, Rising Sun is kinda my big story, so I refuse to add these to it. I like to see how long each chapter really is without my own pre-story commentary.

Anyhow! This is a companion piece to Rising Sun. Much like Path of Terror, this one is directly connected to RS. The biggest difference (aside from absolutely everything else) is that I've already debuted Joseph and Daniel and Charlton in ... Japan. Surely that must feel a bit odd to have Americans in a story about feudal Japan. I write these whenever RS is having trouble. However, I wrote the vast majority of this particular story in one day, so maybe I will have the next chapter up in time for May 1st.

Okay, ADHD is giving me Hell right now, so bear with me.

This is going into a shared universe written by my friend Chinqs and myself. It's called "Destiny Rising" and it covers our own AU that doesn't interfere with the canon AC universe. We're very proud of the results so far and the direction that the respective stories are moving. Expect to see come crossover between our casts in the future. By "future" I mean "in a few paragraphs." Julia Dubois is a character of his creation. I was fortunate enough to write her debut.

Also, if you haven't read his stuff, go read "Assassin's Creed: Destiny." It really gives the sense that the secret war between the Assassins and Templars is ... well, a war ... which is also secret.

Also, this was written for my friend and beta Kayvalo87's birthday a week or so ago (Happy Birthday!). She wanted a piece about Joseph Kent from RS. To all three of you asking, no she isn't really a fan of the AC series or videogames in general, but she is a seriously great writer and I strongly recommend reading her stuff if you're into tv (warning: do not expect slash). That's actually why she's perfect to be my beta. Anyhow, she really likes Joseph so here's Joseph.

* * *

December 10, 1845 in Philadelphia, United States

"I told you, Joey isn't going to that harbor with us," Daniel suicidally demanded of his Mentor.

"Hey!" Joseph interrupted the argument, "I didn't ride from New York to play checkers in a tavern."

Mr Arkwright paced across the small sleeping quarters at the inn, never removing his death-glare from Daniel. "Your brother is right, Daniel," Mr Arkwright spoke, "I brought him here because he's ready to face the challenges of being an Assassin."

Joseph threw his brother an I-told-you-so grin. Daniel threw a punch. The younger Kent pushed himself out of harm's way before he noticed that the punch was faked.

"There, did you see that?" Daniel gestured toward Joseph, highlighting him as an example for Mr Arkwright, "He flinched! He's not ready!"

"Hey I got you all some beers," the sultry voice of the lovely Julia Dubois called as she entered the doorway with five frothy steins in her arms.

Daniel's attention was fixed on her, but not her beers. His fist crossed the air to reach her face, but stopped just short of her nose.

Julia's face tensed, "Did I miss something or is Daniel still going on about Joseph actually doing something?"

'Still going on," Ariel answered from the corner with her nose deep into a new book by some former slave. She always was fond of controversy, but was rarely one for conversation. For her to speak of anything other than Assassin work was very unusual.

"Okay," Julia nodded, "Take a beer and relax, Daniel."

She extended a stein his way. He accepted it without making eye contact her way.

"Okay, everyone take one," she laid three of the remaining steins on a small table in the room before thrusting her own into the air, "Because we are going to toast to Joseph tonight! Seriously... everyone grab one now. It's not every day we initiate someone."

Joseph snatched a stein, spilling some of the froth to the floor, "I'm okay with this, but a toast for you too, Julia."

"Yeah but I was born into this, so that's a bit less exciting."

Julia wasn't completely wrong. She was just a year or so younger than Joseph but her father, Mr Dubois, trained Mr Arkwright. Joseph was only adopted by the Assassins. Julia was born into and shaped by them. She knew nothing else but this. Well, this and alcohol. She was definitely a big fan of alcohol.

"So, everyone stand up and grab a beer," Julia tried to coax the Arkwrights, "Yes Ariel, you too."

"I don't like beer, so don't include me," Ariel peeked over the top of her book before flipping over a page.

"Just do it Ariel," Mr Arkwright commanded, "We've had more than enough arguing to last me a month."

Ariel set her book open on the bed with the pages down. She marched across the room to take a stein. With a very half-hearted expression, she raised the stein, losing much of the beer to the floor.

"So here's to Joseph (and I suppose me too), Assassins until the end!"

"Where other men blindly seek the truth, remember!" Mr Arkwright randomly shouted.

"Nothing is true!" his students shouted in unison, tapping their steins together.

"Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember!"

"Everything is permitted!" they tapped again.

"Then I permit you to drink!" Mr Arkwright laughed.

Joseph took back a big gulp of beer, not knowing what to expect. If everyone else liked it, then it must be good. Right? Wrong. To describe it as being extremely bitter would be doing a disservice to the very flavor of bitterness.

"Yeah no one likes it the first time," Julia laughed at Joseph, causing him to shrivel, "By the way, you have a mustache."

As Joseph rubbed the foam from his upper lip, he noticed that Daniel and Julia had suddenly sprouted their own beerstaches while Mr Arkwright's regular yellow mustache had turned white. Ariel, however, had already placed the stein back on the table to resume her reading on the bed.

"Hey Charlton," Julia spoke up, "Since the mission begins tomorrow night, I'm going downstairs to have some fun, okay?"

Mr Arkwright just nodded.

"Joseph, let's go," she invited.

"Oh no," Daniel stepped in, "Little brother isn't going out drinking tonight without me."

"Little brother is absolutely going drinking without you tonight," Joseph didn't really want to drink, but he had long taken his share of being treated like a child by his own brother.

"I said you're not going without me," Daniel demanded.

"Okay Joseph," Julia pointed to the door, "I'll be waiting for you down there."

Mr Arkwright put his hand on Daniel's shoulder, "Go on, just don't drink too much. We can't afford the right information falling into the wrong hands."

Daniel shrugged himself free from Mr Arkwright, "Is anyone going to listen to me?"

"No," Ariel didn't even peek from her book.

Joseph stuck close behind Julia as she left the room, hoping that her invitation may be hinting toward something later tonight. He couldn't help but to think of that. She was always so beautiful, and even now that he could only see the nape of her neck, it was one hell of a nape. Joseph wouldn't deny it. He always fancied Julia Dubois. He just sometimes wished that maybe he could not-deny it a little less publicly. She always considered him a close friend anyway.

Maybe tonight would be different.

The actual tavern room was bustling tonight. All of the board game tables were full, mostly of men playing cards on boards made for checkers. Most of the stools at the bar had been taken to the tables, forcing most of the bar patrons to stand. Some men were singing songs aloud, one in praise to Jesse Elliot and Oliver Perry, the heroes of Lake Eerie. Joseph couldn't help but to smirk as he passed them. Tomorrow was going to be the end of the Templar, Mr Elliot.

Julia guided Joseph around the crowded mess of people toward the bar. Many men moved around the gaps between tables, making navigation unnecessarily difficult and displeasing.

When they arrived at the bar, Julia leaned into a very small free spot. Joseph squeezed himself a niche to her left. Daniel pried open his own location between his brother and Julia.

"Don't give me that look," Daniel defended from Joseph's glare, "I just wanted a beer. It just so happens that this was the best spot."

Joseph found himself pressing into a rather large patron who smelled of sweat and pig shit on one side. On the other side, he was shoulder to shoulder with his insufferable brother instead of the woman he admired.

"Hey, barkeep!" Julia demanded of a woman whose waist was as artificially narrow as her chest was high, "Barkeep, I need another round of beers."

"Alright, show me your cups," the barkeep answered in a painfully nasal voice.

Julia banged her empty stein onto the bar and looked to Joseph and Daniel as if they should do the same. Joseph checked his hand in case he had remembered to bring his stein, "Yeah, I forgot it."

The barkeep leaned onto her hip with an extremely bored expression, "It's a cent for refills and two cents for a new cup."

"I don't care!" Julia exclaimed, "Here's five cents! Bring us the brew!"

"Um, Julia..." Joseph spoke up, "I don't like beer."

"You will if you drink more."

Daniel leaned on his side to face Joseph, "Don't tell me you're giving up after one drink."

"Really Daniel?" Joseph smack his own head, "Alcohol is no problem, but killing Templars is?"

Both Julia and Daniel glared at Joseph like that was the dumbest question they had ever heard. Now that he thought about it, it probably was. He slunk his head in shame while-

"Hey there pretty lady," a stranger approached Julia, "What are you doing here without your dress?"

"I don't like dresses, and that's all you get to know," she flung her hand up to dismiss him.

In a second, he pulled her hand down behind her back and elbowed her face into the bar with a crash. In another second, a man with a hat did the same thing to Daniel. Joseph backed into the now astonished crowd, hoping to go unnoticed by these ruffians.

"We know who you are, pretty girl," hatless man leaned into Julia, "You're those Assassins. Well, you won't touch Mr Elliot."

"I'm sorry, you must have mistaken us for someone else," Daniel grunted.

"Oh no we don't," the hat man answered, "We know you came with Charlton Arkwright. We also know you'll be buried with him tonight. Now where is he?"

Joseph surmised them to be Templars.

"What if I don't know?"

"Then we'll kill you first," he brandished a bowie knife to Daniel's throat. As annoying as he had been acting, he was still Joseph's brother. No one threatens a Kent in the presence of another Kent.

Julia struggled to break from the thug's grip, but failed, "You're not being very persuasive."

Joseph weaved his way around the crowdspeople. They all stared as a third man aimed a pistol Julia's way, "Where is your Pop, girl?"

"He didn't come to Philly. I'll tell you that."

The gunman cocked his weapon, "Don't lie to me. Where is Charlton Arkwright?!"

The Templars must have mistaken Julia Dubois for Ariel Arkwright. It was ... Almost understandable. They were both women with blonde hair and green eyes, but the similarities stopped there.

Joseph needed a good location for this. They may not have recognized him, but he was just as much of an Assassin as any of the others. He couldn't fathom any other reason why they hadn't subdued him as well, though. It was its own very special kind of insult. Unless they planned for him to flush out Mr Arkwright. Not happening.

Now he was behind the gunman, and the other Templars were busy holding down his fellow Assassins. It was as good a time as any. Joseph sprung from the crowd, jamming his hidden blade from his wrist into the gunman's throat. As it fell, he caught the Templar's pistol and readied it in his left hand, so he could better aim..

In one motion, Joseph cracked the butt of the gun over the hatless Templar's skull, sending him to the ground like a limp doll. The hat man saw this and backed away from Daniel with his hands in the air and knife still on the bar.

"I don't want no harm," the Templar begged.

Joseph pulled the trigger. He had nothing to say to the man.

"Hey barkeep," Joseph muttered, "Sorry about the mess," he patted his brother's chest, "Daniel here will pay for it."

Then Julia did something he didn't expect. She gave him a glassy emotionless look with her olive eyes. She then took Joseph by the hand and pulled him outside into the crisp wintry air. The tavern was far enough from the city proper to not smell of horse manure, but ...

Joseph's heart pounded so hard he could hear it. Julia had taken him behind the tavern. She grabbed his free hand and wrapped his arms around herself, pinning her to the wall. Then she pulled Joseph in by the collar until their lips connected.

His hands glided up her waist as he moved in for another kiss. He tasted a little blood. She must have split her lip on the bar.

Joseph pulled a lock of her dirty blonde hair from her eyes and smiled, "You've always had the prettiest green eyes."

She grinned in return, revealing the place where her lip had busted. Despite that, and despite the bruise on the side of her head, she was stunning in the moonlit snow.

Joseph touched the split with his clean hand, taking a little blood onto his fingertip. His right hand moved up her back and pulled her in for a third kiss.

"Joey! Do you have any idea how much you just cost me?!" Daniel appeared around the corner.

"Dammit, Daniel..."

* * *

Oh! Obligatory disclaimer! In case you haven't noticed, I do not own AC since Ubisoft has yet to meet my demands. Until then, this will remain on Fanfiction.


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